Inauguration of Ruiperez (January 10th 2014)

We are starting the current year with “Prisms”, the latest collection of Ramon Gutiérrez Ruiperez. This exhibition at the Rusiñol Gallery involves a “before” and an “after” for the artist. From this moment onwards he is making a radical change. Up to now he has been known as Ramon, artistically, but from this exhibition he has begun to sign his works as Ruiperez.

Ignasi Cabanas is telling the attendees how he first met this painter, who is exhibiting for the first time at the Rusiñol Gallery. The contact between them was through another exhibition of Aguilar Moré in this same gallery. “I went to the painter’s studio and there I saw a portrait that Ruiperez had dedicated to Aguilar Moré. I liked the work very much and I was interested in him. The fact that the contact was made through Aguilar Moré was an auspicious sign for me”.

Now Mr. Josep M. Cadena, the art critic, is speaking to the audience. In the first place, he thanks the gallery’s commitment to new artists, which is not so common in other galleries. He continues by saying that the works of Ruiperez has the music of the past and reminds us of the works of Casas or Nicanor Vázquez. “Ruiperez takes something which is happening, and instead of making portraits he transforms them into melodies and ballet dancers… It is a work which is old and new at the same time”.

At this time, the artist Ramon Aguilar Moré makes his appearance. Aguilar Moré is one of the oldest artists at the Rusiñol Gallery. Its international credit allows him to be one of the best known contemporary Catalan painters. He approaches the exhibition area and joins us, while sitting on a chair, due to his advanced age. His presence is highly valued by all of us.

Finally, there comes the time for questions which are numerous. Among them we select one referring to the title of the exhibition: “Why the name “Prisms”?” And the artist answers: “Prisms do not allude to the background of my works although they may appear as fragmented by the colours. Nor does it mean that the pictures are made with prisms, because I am not a cubist. I consider myself a figurative painter and sometimes even an expressionist one. As I am not realistic, prisms refer to the prism of reality. It is an abstract concept”.